Week Eight Two-Start Pitchers Update
Here is the latest update to Week 8 two-start pitchers. Again this list is subject to change going forward.
Pitchers not listed on last update
KC – Greinke
ARI – Scherzer
TB – Price
SEA – Washburn
TOR – Tallet
CIN – Owings
Pitchers from Friday no longer scheduled for two starts
TB – Kazmir
NYY – Hughes
TOR – Cecil
ARI – Augenstein
SEA – Jakubauskas
BAL – Eaton
Greinke gave up a season-high eight hits in his last outing but also notched his ninth Quality Start in nine games.
Scherzer has been pitching well with four Quality Starts in his last five games. The one poor outing came at Chase Field when he gave up three home runs to the Nationals. Scherzer has a 6.75 ERA at home this year compared to a 1.86 ERA in neutral road parks. Scherzer has two home games this week.
Price was hardly overwhelming in eight games in Triple-A but gets the call with Kazmir going on the DL. He was 1-4 with a 3.93 ERA at Durham. Price had an impressive 9.17 K/9 but a poor 4.72 BB/9.
Washburn started the year with three Quality Starts but since then he is 0-3 with a 5.34 ERA. Washburn had his last start pushed back due to tightness in his left knee, although the Mariners do not consider the injury a serious one.
Tallet has a 4.17 ERA in seven games as a starter, compared to a 6.14 ERA in four games as a reliever. After a 10-run outing in his final start in April, Tallet has reeled off four straight Quality Starts and has a 1.000 WHIP in that time frame.
Owings’ strikeouts are down nearly two per game from a year ago. He is also getting fewer swings out of the strike zone and batters are making better contact than they were last season. Owings has failed to complete six innings in five of his eight starts this year.
Scherzer plays for Arizona, not San Francisco… which your text reflected, of course, just not the team in the list up top.
Fixed – thanks for the heads up.
Eaton got the axe and is no longer employed.
Any word on who the O’s will pull up? I hear Tillman hurt his hammy and he wont be considered…
Would like to see the kid get a shot and see how bad that Bedard deal really was…
It will probably be Jason Berken. Tillman won’t get called up until September at the earliest, barring unforeseen circumstances. The next big prospect that might be called up is David Hernandez – the only reason I don’t think he’s the guy right now is because he pitched one or two days ago. Check out his peripherals though!
If Tillman continues to post lights out numbers in AAA why wouldn’t the O’s consider giving him major league seasoning this year in say June/July? I mean he posted lights out numbers in AA with control being the biggest issue, and he appears to have done a good job of reducing the walks this year. I would think they’d want to get him up and going, and perhaps move Matusz and Arrieta up a level as well this year. I would imagine Tillman is in the rotation plans for next year, with David Hernandez (whom you mentioned, and is pitching lights out). They also have Troy Patton pitching lights out in AA. Considering teams are always looking to add pitching at the deadline, it wouldn’t shock me at all to see the O’s move Guthrie at the deadline to open up a rotation spot, especially considering all the young arms (Tillman, Hernandez, Arrieta, Matusz, Patton, Erbe) on the way and Rich Hill and Uehera pitching well (albeit in Hill’s case in a very small sample size).
Yes, if Tillman maintains his 2.25 FIP and 2.13 ERA through the end of the month even, MacPhail would be hard pressed to keep him in the minors. My point was simply that the original plan was to keep him down there until September at the earliest. Personally, I think Tillman’s HR/9 will regress quite a bit and his FIP will end up in the 3.5 ish range within a month or two. That’s still very good, but it’s not “promote me now or you’ll regret it for the rest of your life” good.
With Hernandez, I just got the impression that they were willing to call him up earlier. As for Berken, I think the O’s realize that this is probably their only chance to get him some playing time to see what he can do. He’s 25 years old, not a big prospect but he has exhibited good control and a reasonable ability to get groundballs. We’re giving him a chance while we still have open spots.